Holy cats, the BUILD! Who did that build??? I forgot to check, but I was blown away by it. The use of the red panels to break up the white bricks. The ingenious use of levels. The brilliant layout. The scope and scale of it, that suggested a huge, busy, crowded city better than anything I've ever seen in a sim before. So incredibly impressed.

I just wandered around oohing and ahhing over the build. Nobody talked to me or attempted to interact, but that's cool because I was just wandering for the most part busy being in awe of that build.

There were a lot of people on the sim, but most seemed to be clustered up inside. The public places, the tavern, the inn, and the baths, were sadly empty. I crossed paths with a few other wanderers, but nobody interacted. There was a brothel, which made me cringe a little. The fact that free woman brothels have become ubiquitous in BtB Gor sims is a pet peeve of mine- it's just another way that free women characters have usurped the slave role in SL Gorean RP, really and it's kinda sad.

I saw a group of warriors (or dudes in armor and red shirts), so that was nice to see, and I know that lorica segmentata is freaking gorgeous as hell, but we seem to be ditching the part of the books that say armor wasn't allowed by the Priest Kings. Eh, ok.

I saw a few FW in Rennassance ball gowns, and bit of flexy here and there, but I also saw the most beautiful FW outfit I think I've ever seen, complete with an ornate and completely modest set of hood and veils. There was one or two giggleworthy outfits, like the 10 feet tall dude with the 5 feet wide shoulderpads on, but for the most part, people looked damned good. There were a few obvious GBK guys there. LOL They made me grin, cuz they tend to stick out like a sore thumb, but hey- I may be taking a guytoon there too, so whatevs.

I'm a little nervous about finding roleplay, since I don't have a posse or peeps or family, so don't have a handy "IN" to the roleplay and I'm not sure how many nights I'll be able to put in with the hopes of finding something I can get into via "wandering encounters" before I get discouraged and move on, but criminy- that freaking BUILD. It's definitely worth a visit just to see. Massive kudos to the designer/builder, there.

"...to take truth for granted is not to know it. Truth not won is not possessed. We are not entitled to truths for which we have not fought." --- (Marauders of Gor, p.7)http://clockworkkitteh.blogspot.com/

Targus built the sim, but I admit I'm kind of salty about it. You see, I had hired him a few months ago to build a sim for me. After numerous delays, and pouring money down the drain, he tells me he can't finish the build. At that point, I was ready to just part ways and close the project until I could find another builder. However, he didn't refund me his entire retainer cost. So not only did I pay for the sim during that time, but I paid him to not finish it. The worst part? 90% of the textures in Ar, are ones I gave him for my build. Some of which, were modified like the red brick breaking it up. It was like a slap in the face seeing it

The build itself is good, particularly the layout. It feels like a city should, and I'm constantly getting lost. My nitpicks with it are things like... it's a prim-heavy build, and one that could have been done better with some mesh pieces. The sewers for instance would have been much better in mesh for physics reduction alone. But in the grand scheme it's relatively minor, considering there aren't a lot of mesh builders out there in SL.

One of the first things that struck me about the sim is that there are areas. There are sections where the rich people live, where the poor folks live, and the in-between. It immediately sets up a dynamic that I think has the potential for a lot of RP.

Speaking of which... I think I must have had much better luck than Tamar in this. I went with the intent of just "floating" for a bit (and possibly forever. They do allow you to NPC an owner). This seems to be a trend actually with most slaves I meet. They don't want to find a private owner because they've had so many bad experiences with it. Without one, they can come on, rp with their friends, and that's that. No drama. Anyway, it was working out for me for about 3.5 seconds before a pirate decided he didn't give a damn who owned her and snatched her up, only to send her back out to gather intel for him. That's what struck me about the RP. Because the story of the sim is so heavily politically based, it trickles down all the way to the slaves and thank goodness for that. I've had no less than four guys in a day come up to her and try to get the same thing - information. Inevitably this is going to end in her death once it all comes out, but I don't care. It'll be a good death and be worth it.

The free women I've seen are free women in the best sense of the term. They're cruel, imperious, haughty, and glorious. I'm in awe, even when my poor slave girl is getting terrorized, because the free women are played so well. The men seem to be on top of it, too; at least the ones I've played with. I had one guy come into the tavern and pull her in to serve him. He went on about the warrior's life and I felt he had such depth of character, I didn't even want to post. I just wanted to read his. It wasn't some grand love affair, he had simply grabbed a slave girl and held her close like a lonely soldier that needed a laugh and a good lay. When it was done, it was done, and I swear it's one of my favorite scenes to date. I ended up staying up till 7am that night to finish it because I didn't want to quit!

I unfortunately haven't had much interaction with the slave girls. Odd, because they're the ones I seek out first more often than not. I've cammed around and seen some really gorgeous avatars, and some that make me cringe. To each their own, I suppose.

All in all, for an opening weekend? Excellent. I'm excited to see where this leads. Bonus points that there were no OOC issues. Not a single one.

Sabina Takakura wrote:Targus built the sim, but I admit I'm kind of salty about it. You see, I had hired him a few months ago to build a sim for me. After numerous delays, and pouring money down the drain, he tells me he can't finish the build. At that point, I was ready to just part ways and close the project until I could find another builder. However, he didn't refund me his entire retainer cost. So not only did I pay for the sim during that time, but I paid him to not finish it. The worst part? 90% of the textures in Ar, are ones I gave him for my build. Some of which, were modified like the red brick breaking it up. It was like a slap in the face seeing it

Ohshigoshyikes, that makes me wanna take back every good thing I had said about the build. >.<

And I'm a little concerned about this blurb on the webpage (which is also gorgeous):"EMPIRE OF AR FORUM RULES

➥ No criticism of the sim or admins (properly lodge constructive feedback directly to admins).➥ No political or religious discussions.➥ No discussion about ongoing role play scenes without the consent of all parties involved and only if there is no risk of metagaming"

Those are some of the rules that stuck out as a bit of a red flag. In the past, any time I've seen a sim's staff attempt to lock down discussions in their group chat or on their forums, it's turned into massive micromanaging in no time flat and a real killer of creativity and free and open discussion. Least the sim rules themselves didn't seem to send out any red flags that I could see, the death and limits pages seemed pretty common sense on first skim.

And yes, Sabina- you got way lucky but then again, I was only on sim for maybe a half hour at the most, and cruising around sightseeing for most of that time, so maybe that's why nobody tossed me a post? Not gonna knock it for that, maybe I'll have better luck when I manage to make it back and am really looking for arpees... And I'm trying something new, I'm playing a FW for the first time since I attempted to start playing in SL Gor. LOL So that should be...interesting. I'd love to run into you! (Even if my character might be more likely to kick a slave than feed them candy.) I'm expecting to be terrible at it, but we'll see where it goes. I think I'm honestly burned out on playing a slave character at this point. But who knows, might change my mind several times, or my FW might end up killed/enslaved (or both!) so I'm open to anything at this point.

"...to take truth for granted is not to know it. Truth not won is not possessed. We are not entitled to truths for which we have not fought." --- (Marauders of Gor, p.7)http://clockworkkitteh.blogspot.com/

Taking what you said at face value, if that's true? I'm shocked anyone would work with someone like that. In my old group we paid a builder to do custom meshes for our base build, and then about six months later we found that another group had paid him to build, and he'd used all those "unique" meshes as well. Essentially double-dipping on what we'd had made to spec, and paid quite a bit for. When we told the other group this? They took it all down. THese were bitter enemies, too, people who really hated our guts. It's just sort of crappy that someone could do this and not get blacklisted, assuming it's all true.

As for the sim, it's big, it's pretty, it had a couple very clear knots of people who were mostly inside... and the aforementioned rules are deeply off-putting."Don't talk bad, talk to us and if we don't do anything about it, tough tootsies.""Don't talk about your RP because if you mess it up, it's really serious business."Etc.

It's all... very seriousface. I get trying to avoid metagaming, but on the other hand if you can't talk about the stories, laugh about them, and spread the word, how do you get new people? It's like, you have to more or less have an in, to get in. It turns it all into something so very secretive. Plus, that constant fear of "messing it up" or "saying too much". Cripes, it's like LARPing.

Give me the old Midian method, where you'd get an IM from a faction lead going 'Hey, we're going to fuck you over like this, that cool?" Then youd' both laugh about it in group chat and others would get involved because the fun, and community, was more important than the oh so serious story.

For some reason I had thought that Babybear Serenity was the one who built Empire of Ar, but I haven't seen anything but the inside of one building so far (got TP'd in by someone to look at some outfits).

This isn't fucking Survivor. We aren't a tribe.

If I won't put up with an in-character owner trying to control my OOC life, what makes you think I'll put up with you trying to do that?

Well Tamar, for what I know, the brothel is inactive, there is no owner yet... Some FW may be sentenced to serve there, as punishment, others may come in disguise to satisfy some insane curiosity and feel like slaves (at their own risks), but else, the place is totally opened to slave characters.

Since 2 days, as soon as I have set a foot outside my room, I have been involved in a lot of RP, I remember a moment where even, it was hard for me to follow because people didn't stop to join the scene. Some areas are more active than some others. Sometimes, it takes just to begin a scene with a slave who stands, alone, on a bridge for the fun starts. Got some nice scenes with slave girls, playing properly the role, and end up ignoring another one who obviously missed the part in books where it is said that kajirae fear FW, especially after she emoted something making clear that she knelt only because told by her owner, and later, chuckled about my FW, in turning her head for she doesn't see her... *shrugs* But I suspect these snowflakes won't be a majority in Ar.

About armors, PK don't allow one with metal, but leather is permitted if my memory is good, and since the designer of this nice outfit that many men bought at the FGC, made finally a leather version, I think we will soon only see this one.

For the rules which seem to bother you (the forum rules), I personally, would approve them. Nothing is more annoying that when some player come rant for any reason. The discussion quickly turns into a fight until the mods get forced to lock the discussion. And people rant about censure. Plus, we got a note, today, saying this:

"6. The website http://www.empireofar.com contain sim rules not suggestions. We will not be arguing how fair they are in the middle of a situation. You are welcome to drop us a NC trying to make a case for changing the rules and we will review it."

I honestly don't know many sims which would consider the possibility to modify a rule, following the developed arguments.

Also, political and religious discussions have nothing to do in the role play forum of a sim, and well, discussing on-going RP involve always the risk of disclosing details which could ruin the surprise for involved players.

So far, anyway, I got some real good scenes and met new people. And if you don't mean if your slave character gets tormented by some unfair FW, inwardly jealous,absolutely petty, cruel and selfish, come cross my path! You could recognize easily my alt, I guess, covered from head to toes, hooded, in loose and adorned robes (mesh), a train, with heavy veils. I am a shy RPer but I love rping with slaves!

Slave players can pretend they're owned (NPC), nobody will urge them to find a PC owner.

And yes, the build is amazing in this sense that it really gives the atmosphere of a huge city, and yes, I got lost a few times myself, loved it!

Sasi wrote:Sometimes, it takes just to begin a scene with a slave who stands, alone, on a bridge for the fun starts.

@ The build:Nobody knew about it because I didn't tell anyone. It just wasn't worth the effort. When I went to see the sim, I did tell Babybear. She was upset about it, but by that time the sim was nearly completed. If I expected her to demand a different texture or builder, it would have been another month of work and they would have had to find another builder. I wouldn't expect that from her. She was super kind, respectful, and sweet about the entire thing. If proof is needed, I've got plenty of emails, transaction logs, and I can whip out the textures. But there comes a point when you realize that shit happens and sometimes bickering over things only makes it worse for everyone. I would have given the textures to Babybear if she had asked for them, so it's no real skin off my back. Just a shady builder. Oh well.

@ Rules:I'm with Sasi on that one. I read it as them not wanting to spend their time moderating a flame war on the forums when it could have been handled easily with some notecards or a chat. If an admin is that big of a bucket of ass sweat, then it won't matter if you can't post it on the forums. Everyone will find out soon enough, you know?

My favorite moment with the admins so far? I pinged one to ask if I needed to fill out an application as well, or if it was just for the free. Her response?"Why wouldn't you? You're a roleplayer, aren't you?"

I guess what makes me nervous about those types of rules is that my experiences have been that they're not there to prevent harassing or flame wars, but instead used to lock down even something as innocuous as a thread like this- where we're sharing our own likes and dislikes and experiences in a fairly calm, polite, respectful and constructive manner. In the past, when I've seen rules like that, even something as tame as this thread would cause someone to flip their shit, take things personally, and lash out against whoever dared to say anything that wasn't a glowing compliment about their sim and -that- is what tends to be offputting. I'm hoping, of course that's not the case for this sim and that you guys are all right.

I'm still waiting to be approved, but I have had fun putting a FW outfit together. Posh Tales has a nice set of modesty tops with appliers for mesh bodies, FYI!

"...to take truth for granted is not to know it. Truth not won is not possessed. We are not entitled to truths for which we have not fought." --- (Marauders of Gor, p.7)http://clockworkkitteh.blogspot.com/

Sabina Takakura wrote:Targus built the sim, but I admit I'm kind of salty about it. You see, I had hired him a few months ago to build a sim for me. After numerous delays, and pouring money down the drain, he tells me he can't finish the build. At that point, I was ready to just part ways and close the project until I could find another builder. However, he didn't refund me his entire retainer cost. So not only did I pay for the sim during that time, but I paid him to not finish it. The worst part? 90% of the textures in Ar, are ones I gave him for my build. Some of which, were modified like the red brick breaking it up. It was like a slap in the face seeing it

I know, But....Woah dude....that's super dirty.

For what it's worth...I Iike your texture choice? Sabina, next time you wanna do a sim build, hit me up! I won't rob you.